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Police squad deployed to protect NHS staff from attacks

A dedicated police squad has been set up to protect hospital staff from violent patients amid rising Accident & Emergency chaos.

The new three officer team will cover workers at four major hospitals in London, with police saying staff would no longer have to put up with attacks and threats.

Police will protect nurses from assault, remove patients that refuse to be discharged, while attending community events as part of "neighbourhood policing" officers said.

The team set up last month is attached to the Royal Free, Whittington, UCL and Great Ormond hospitals in London. A number of city hospitals have their own police liaison officers, amid soaring levels of attacks on staff, but this is thought to be the first time a dedicated squad like this has been set up.

Elsewhere in the country, security staff have been issued with body cameras. Last year the Royal Blackburn Hospital became the first to issue cameras after more than 220 assaults in 12 months.

Official figures show a 24 per cent rise in assaults on hospital staff in the last six years. There were 56,718 assaults in 2009-10, rising to 70,555 in 2015-16.